Newcastle’s Fordtronic AV specialises in providing high-quality audio and visual equipment for events of all kinds events including awards dinners, conferences and particularly corporate work. In March, they did 61 events and fortunately, they had their new Prolights Astra Hybrid330s, as well as four sets of ShowPRO Apollos and six Prolights EclProfile CT+ to help them!
Originally, Fordtronic AV’s Managing Director & Leading AV Technician, Jonathon Ford, approached Show Technology in search of a new moving light fixture.
“We weren’t sure what we wanted,” admitted Jonathon. “We’d been sub-hiring from other suppliers in town but knew it was time to purchase our own fixtures. Gareth thought that these hybrids were well suited to the corporate work that we do … and he was right!”
Jonathon has used the Astra Hybrid330s on award nights for ballyhoos, to add a bit of atmosphere to the room, and at the university as an architectural effect highlighting different parts of the room.
“We got a custom-made gobo made with a company’s logo so they can specifically hire the Astra Hybrid330 and get their logo put on a building, on a wall, on the floor, wherever they want to do it,” he added
Jonathon states that upon using the Astra Hybrid330s, he was extremely impressed by their output and also the zoom range, being able to go from 3° degrees to 50°.
“That was pretty impressive because some of the rooms we go to aren’t big, so being able to zoom the Gobo out was a huge advantage,” he said. “The Gobos are great and the fact that it’s got an animation wheel was one of the features we very much wanted in a mover.”
The Prolights EclProfile CT+ have had a home at Fordtronic AV for a while now with Jonathon commenting that he loves them for live stream and broadcast events as he can dial in the colour temperature for whatever the camera needs and the flexibility of what they can do is far better than what they had previously.
Fordtronic AV own 24 x ShowPRO Apollo battery-powered, outdoor-rated RGBW LED high-output uplights that go anywhere you go, cable-free. These have been so successful for them, that Jonathon plans to double that number in the next month to go up to 48 x Apollos.
“We’re using them as room uplights as they have such a tight beam angle of 11° we can do some architectural lighting within brickwork,” remarked Jonathon. “Because the light is so small, we can get it into tight spaces to light up different parts of venues. We also use the Apollos as a table centre with a perspex globe over the top of it which looks cool. We don’t want to get into theming but to be able to offer the Apollo as an uplight or as a table centre is an extra revenue stream for us to get back on the light.”
